


A Regular Saturday

by MissytheAngle



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Awkward Crush, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Insecurity, Mermaids, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 11:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10853055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissytheAngle/pseuds/MissytheAngle
Summary: Amethyst had a simple agenda for the day:  play games at the arcade, grab her lunch—a ham sandwich with chips—and then visit her mermaid friend.A mermaid AU for the latest Amedotbomb.





	A Regular Saturday

**Author's Note:**

> Meant to be for the "Mermaids" prompt, though I've seen lots of (great) art where they're both mermaids. So hopefully this is still fine. 
> 
> Here, basically, Amethyst is human, Peridot is mermaid. Fairly simple! Also, this isn't Beach City; it's at a beach but isn't our beloved city, so I thought I'd clarify. What's the setting? I have no clue. Haha! 
> 
> Uhh... that's it (oh, also, not beta-ed; didn't really wanna bother anyone with this one). ENJOY!

Amethyst ordered her usual ham sandwich, also buying some chips on the side, grabbed the bag, and ran, the ocean just in view. Her sandals flapped against the boardwalk. The sun began to set, and far less people populated the beach since the morning.

Teens certainly loved to check out the beach once the moon rose. It was early May, after all. Yes, there were plenty of visitors because the always delightful Summer Break had at last arrived for college students the previous week. Still, it was only at the start of June when the crowds  _really_ went wild. All that aside, however, this was a perfect time.

Amethyst's face lit up when she came to where the boardwalk diverged into another path deeper into the ocean. The boardwalk there held games and even a few small rides. And she would have been more than content with spending the rest of the afternoon—and her pocket cash—to play those water shooting games for a prize, and perhaps even surprise—

Not at the moment, though. She slid down the hill and walked onto the beach, then walked over a path of rocks that reached out toward the sea. She ended up under the boardwalk and walked into the very center, jumping back onto sand. She found a group of rocks and sat on one of the smoother ones. 

Taking out her sandwich and chips from the bag, she put as many chips as possible in between the buns. It wasn't complete without them! She opened her mouth. 

Then she heard it. A splash. A noise of surprise escaped her throat, and she put down her sandwich. Amethyst jumped to her feet, wearing a wicked grin at the sight of fins of a green tail peeking from the water. With a quick spin, she dug into her duffel bag and took out an old fishing pole she...  _borrowed_ from Pearl. 

 Amethyst hurled the line in the radius of where she sat the tail. The bait, which was a piece of ham, floated in the water. She leaned against a boardwalk support, whistling. When a blond head popped out from the water, she stopped. 

"It stopped being funny the first time, Amethyst." Peridot grunted, eyebrows narrowing. 

Amethyst burst out laughing, arms clutching her stomach and abandoning the fishing pole. "Dunno what you're on about. Still cracks  _me_ up," she said after recovering. She swung her feet to sit down again and again grabbed her sandwich. "Hey, girl! Wanna piece?"

"Thank you, I suppose, but we've discussed this already. I don't eat." Peridot shook off some seaweed that littered her hair and swam up to Amethyst. She rested her arms on the rocks. 

"Have you ever tried? I'm sure you can?" Amethyst suggested.

"Well, we  _can._ I've known merpeople whose curiosity beat their common sense and tried your human food. Whatever it was didn't go well with their systems." Peridot eyed the sandwich and stuck out her tongue. "We're picky, I suppose you can say."

"Pft, weird." Amethyst adjusted herself, dipping her feet into the water, and put the rest of her sandwich into her mouth. "More for me, then," she added, but the food in her mouth made it come out more mumbled than not. 

Peridot squinted. "Humans require random pieces of substance in order to survive. How is  _that_ not weird?" 

"Food's great! Don't knock it!" Amethyst defended, then leaned back. She sorted through her bag to retrieve a notebook and a pencil and pen. Placing the notebook securely atop her legs, she said, "'Kay, what'd you do today, then? Besides not eat delicious food?" 

Peridot shook her head. "Let's see... well, I did find an abandoned ship a few miles off." 

Amethyst gawked, quickly distracted from her notebook. “Shut up! What was it like?”

“Well, abandoned—”

“So observant, Peri.” Amethyst fluttered her eyelids.

“And creepy,” Peridot added, completely dismissing Amethyst’s snarky remark. “It looks as if it sank centuries ago. Since I’ve only recently started journeying away from home, there’s so much I haven’t seen before.”

“Look at you, checkin’ stuff out. You gotta show me someday!” Amethyst exclaimed, leaning forward with excitement.

“Yes, let me just get my magical device where humans can breathe underwater,” Peridot teased, but still grinning. 

“Oh, so you’re finally working on it. Great!”

"You'll have to be the first test subject."

"Worth it!" 

Peridot rolled her eyes. "So what did you do today, then? See any abandoned ships out there?" 

Amethyst shrugged as she scribbled in her notebook. "Hung out at the arcade, played some games, junk like that. Nothing special." Her voice was curt, eyes concentrated on her work which she angled so Peridot couldn't look. "My life's boring. If I was a mermaid, I'd probably... well, I dunno what exactly, but it'd still be cool!" 

Peridot scoffed. "Oh, please. I've only been exploring recently, and I can only travel so far. Otherwise, my home has nothing to do! Humans have so much more, er, things to do! From what I've seen, you can do so much more!" 

"I guess that's true, but do you ever talk to any other humans? 'Sides me?" 

"Not really." Peridot shook her head after thinking it over. "At most, I come near the beach to see you and that's it." 

"Aww, how sweet!" Amethyst feigned a moment of swooning. 

"Anyway!" Peridot exclaimed, blush dusting her pale cheeks. "I don't meet a lot of humans, if not any at all. You might very well be the first, unless I met one and completely forgot. Which I doubt is the case. You're definitely the first one I've ever become friends with."

"... S-seriously?"

"Of course I'm serious." 

Amethyst's gaze averted from Peridot, face feeling warm. In attempts to brush off her racing heart, she added hastily and with a burst of fake pride, "Aren't I special!" 

"I-I guess! I mean, yes, but... you know what I mean." 

"That's reassuring. Lemme have this one, P-dot." 

"R-right." Peridot eyed Amethyst's notebook, which Amethyst returned her attention to and had kept it there for several minutes now. With a suspicious eye, she glanced back up at Amethyst. "What are you doing, exactly, with that tablet?" 

Amethyst's body froze. "Uhh, nothing! Don't worry 'bout it!" she shouted quickly, face painted red. 

"I'm not worried about it!" Peridot tossed her a lazy wave. "I'm just asking what it is." 

"I don't want to show you..." Amethyst turned away, pouting. 

Peridot pulled herself a few inches from the water. "Why not? What is it!? Amethyst! Come on!" she whined, clasping her hands together. "Please!" 

"Oh, pft,  _now_ you know the word please! Fine!" Amethyst exhaled a loud breath, but pointed firmly at Peridot, who lowered herself back into the water. "But don't laugh!"

"So I'm not supposed to laugh?"

"Well, I'd rather you not."

Amethyst turned the notebook around and placed it on the ground. Peridot observed it, getting as close as she could with her limited movement. She squinted at it, almost grabbed it before Amethyst yanked it away, shouting she worried it would get all wet. Finally, Peridot hummed.

“Is that me? How did you do that?”

Amethyst stared at her, then back at her sketch of Peridot. Her eyes grew. “Are you kidding? Ya’ll don’t have drawing? Or just... art!? Tell me I’m reaching or something.”

“Art? No, that doesn't sound familiar. This sounds familiar to meep morps. They're basically things we make out of other things. But we don't have paper, for, well, obvious reasons.”

"Meep—'kay, not gonna bother with that." Amethyst shook her head. "But it's, ya know, close to that."

"Then you're making art of me?" Peridot's pitch elevated.

She bowed her head and placed her notebook neatly back onto her lap. "It's not that good." She glared at the way the eyes didn't align properly, and she could never get Peridot's hair right! She cleared her throat. "I mean, yeah, I am, but... eh, I like to do this junk in my spare time."

"I like it."

"You do?"

"It's me, so of course I do." Mischief sparked in Peridot's eyes.

Amethyst grinned back, snickering.

"But you haven't drawn just me, have you?"

Amethyst snickered. "Gosh, of course not. I've been drawing stuff before meeting you. I've got a couple in here. Wanna see?"

Peridot nodded, and Amethyst hesitantly offered her notebook to her, though giving her a small threat ("Get the pages soaked, and you owe me a new one... somehow."). Peridot began flipping through the pages, angling her body so that while she did so, Amethyst could see what drawings Peridot was looking at. "Wow," Peridot commented under her breath, making Amethyst blush.

There were a few simple drawings, like one of a frog that she had found and brought home with her on a walk one day (she named it Cthulhu because why not?), but Amethyst noticed the ones where she was most inspired to actually kind of _try._

Peridot stopped at one of those and glanced over her shoulder at Amethyst. She pointed at the drawing of Amethyst's favorite animal. "Now what's this?"

"Oh, that's a puma!" Amethyst took back the notebook, quietly amazed it sustained no water damage. "I like me some tigers. They're pretty cool land creatures that run real fast. I should just bring a whole book of things humans with feet have that you nerds don't. Pearl probably has something. I can show you all kinds of things you're missing out on."

"That'll probably be a lot of things," Peridot grumbled, mood quickly and visibly deflated. 

Amethyst sighed, staring at her mermaid friend for a moment. "I'm guessing the movies are wrong, then?"

Peridot glanced at her. “What movies?”

Amethyst smiled. She had explained what movies a while back, talking about her favorites— _the House,_ though that was due to irony and irony alone, and anything with comic book heroes where they didn’t take everything so _seriously!_ So she was glad Peridot remembered. 

As for mermaid movies… Amethyst shrugged. “Ya know, the ones where they have mermaids, and they can magically have feet on land. The rules are different sometimes—can’t touch water, can’t be out after the moon rises, stuff like that. Either way, you'd be able to be sort of human and see a bunch of stuff you can't really enjoy as a mermaid.”

Peridot made a noise of distaste. “Then those are grossly inaccurate, at best! No, I’ve always been a mermaid. Never a human. I don’t know a single mermaid who could walk on land. There have certainly been myths, but they never have proven to be actually true. We've got fins, and that's it.”

“Well, there has to be a way, I'm sure,” Amethyst exclaimed, arms spread out, then lowered her voice with a paranoid look around. The sun had long since set, and the beach side had a tired feel to it. Not many walked the boardwalk at this time, but still! She pulled her legs back up to stand up. “I never knew mermaids existed until I met you! Ya’ll were just myths to me! Maybe there’s a-a-a witch or-or a alchemist who can give you the ability to walk on land whenever you want!”

“There’s never been anything like that," Peridot said sternly. "Don’t you think we’d know if mermaids could walk on land? Of course I’d want to be able to in order to… to…” Peridot stopped, voice growing quiet until Amethyst could hear nothing from her. Peridot just stared at Amethyst in a weird way that made Amethyst's chest flutter.

“To what?”

Peridot blinked. “Uh… experience, you know, human things,” she mumbled, much shyer than previously. "See what it's like in comparison to my world." 

Amethyst smiled at her. “Heck, I’d love to show you everything... around here, at least. I mean, yeah, that kinda sucks, but… I still like hanging out with you, if it helps. Tail and all.”

“I would hope so.” Peridot flashed her a smug grin.

Amethyst laughed. Then her phone buzzed. She checked the time after retrieving it from her pocket. “Aww, shoot! Pearl’s gonna have my head if I’m late again! Ugh!” she groaned, grabbing everything and placing the pole and her notebook back inside her bag.

"You have to go already?" Peridot could not conceal her disappointment. "It feels like we just got here!"

Amethyst threw the bag around her shoulder and turned to Peridot. “Sadly, yup. I got stuff to do tomorrow, but maybe I can see you Monday?”

Peridot’s lower lip pouted out, but she nodded. “I'll be waiting. Don’t be late like this time.”

“I wasn’t late! How do you know how time works? You live underwater without any clocks! For all you know, I was ten minutes _early._ ”

“We still have the concept of time, Amethyst.”

"I guess that's true." She paused, halfway turning to walk away, but she stopped. Her eyes grazed over the rocks she stood on. Water washed over them as the ocean levels rose. Tiny splashes of water tickled her feet. Something stuck to her mind, and she worried about saying anything…

“Is something wrong?”

Amethyst looked back at Peridot, flinching. Again, hesitating.

Peridot’s glare deepened. “I can tell that something's bothering you, so—”

“Why me?”

Peridot's eyebrow rose. “Why you… what?”

“It's just... I wanna know! How am I the only human you’ve _ever_  been friends with? There’s gotta be way more interesting humans out there to talk to. And _way_ smarter ones who could tell you about all kinds of things you'd probably like! People who, ya know, don't just waste their time doing _nothing_ all week. Why is it me that you decided ‘hey, maybe we can be friends’?” Amethyst’s questions came out in a rush, but nothing was stopping her yet. She let out an awkward laugh and threw her head back. “Is it ‘cause we both have gem names or something? Something dumb like that, because I guess it could be worse but—”

"Amethyst.”

Amethyst realized she was rambling and felt her face burn. She glanced down at Peridot, who had this determined look in her eyes. Amethyst sat back down, hand sitting in her lap.

Peridot sighed. “I don’t know _why_ you’re the one that caught my attention out of other humans. After all, you aren’t the first one who saw me in the ocean by chance and tried to investigate like a typical nosy human.”

Amethyst rolled her eyes. “Great. That really helps,” she mumbled with a grimace.

“Wait!” Peridot hissed, as if afraid Amethyst would walk away then and there. She sighed heavily. “I don’t know why, but… I certainly don't regret that. You are much easier to talk to than anyone—or any _thing,_ really—so I kept coming back. I don't care about 'smarter' humans or ones who don't waste their time, whatever _that_ refers to. I just... liked _you._ And still like you, I should clarify." Peridot pulled her gaze away when she finished, blush brushing her cheeks again.

Words failed Amethyst. She could tell her eyes were beginning to water and shook her head, hoping her hair could conceal her moment of weakness. 

Peridot recoiled. "Oh, shells! Amethyst, I thought that would be at least  _a little_ reassuring _,_ but—" Her hand awkwardly reached out toward Amethyst's lap, but never got there.

"S-stop, stop. Don't worry!" Amethyst interrupted her, shaking her hands. "I'm fine, I'm cool. I guess I'm just freakin' over nothing." She threw out a quick breath of laughter. "Typical Amethyst."

"Sure. Typical Amethyst," Peridot agreed but with a deadpan. Then she smirked. "You should probably leave or else that Pearl will take your head. I'd much prefer seeing you return with your head."

Amethyst giggled. "I make no promises." She leaned forward one last time to say inches from Peridot's face, "Night, Peri."

"Good night, Amethyst."

Amethyst turned and ran back up to the boardwalk. She took out her notebook one last time, flipping back to her portrait of Peridot. Her pace slowed, and she smiled. Being late became less of a concern because she couldn't stop staring. It wasn't that it was an amazing drawing, but...

It was certainly one of her favorites. 

**Author's Note:**

> I guess my favorite setting for these two is "unbelievably obvious sexual tension." 
> 
> I kinda want to expand on this, if I ever get beyond a few ideas! I imagine it'd be long. And I'm so glad I could write something on TIME for these things!!
> 
> I have another one-shot on my story for collections of old Amedotbombs, and I still need to finish that last one. But this one got me excited. Mermaids are cool, people!!!


End file.
